Evidence is growing that our human species could be headed for extinction in the not-too-distant future. Climate change-related floods have this month displaced more than 30 million people in Pakistan. Vladimir Putin is rattling the nuclear sabre. The global human population keeps growing by about 80 million annually, while we are running out of critical resources on which we depend. Food security is a massive problem in many parts of the world and children are dying of starvation and malnutrition.
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Despite the warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and we are approaching dangerous and irreversible tipping points. Many ecosystems on which we humans depend are becoming extinct. Human made chemical poisons are entering our air, food and water at an alarming and uncontrolled rate. And the technology revolution has resulted in the capacity for artificial intelligence to turn on its creators.
Human extinction is not inevitable, and it is still possible to turn this likelihood around. But rescue from this fate will be difficult. Forces are at play to keep us on the path to catastrophic disaster. And we could quickly be in a situation where rescue is no longer feasible.
The central problem is that no government on Earth is yet treating 10 mega-threats to the human future with the response that they demand. And nothing short of a global commitment by all nations, working together on a comprehensive program aimed at human species survival will suffice.
Building on extensive documentation by Canberra Science writer Julian Cribb, the Council for The Human Future - chaired by former politician John Hewson - has sponsored roundtables and an important online global conference of experts about the 10 mega-threats that are coming at us together. These are
- Climate change
- Depletion of essential resources
- Destruction and extinction of other species
- Widespread chemical poisoning
- Uncontrolled proliferation of technology including artificial intelligence
- Weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons
- Pandemics of new and well known diseases
- Insecurity of food supplies
- Excess human numbers
- Widespread misinformation and denial that the threats are as serious as they are
Hewson in 2021 contacted the secretary-general of the United Nations about the need for a UN office for the prevention of catastrophic risk. The response he received was that such a development can only come about through a request by a member state. Australia could be making such a request.
At this stage, the 10 threats would probably be manageable through a globally co-ordinated campaign and a commitment to human survival by national governments everywhere. It is unthinkable that any government would be knowingly opposed to the survival of our species, but there is no evidence yet of such a global movement.
The Albanese government could and should commit to initiating such a movement. This would involve the development of a national education program about these interacting risks, a move by our foreign minister to engage other countries in this action and a formal request from our government to the United Nations to build a program committed to the long-term survival of the human species.
It is perhaps not surprising that politicians do not want to highlight these problems nor to actively engage with them. But it is absolutely vital that they do so, and that the community engages with them in this task.
- Emeritus Professor Bob Douglas is a retired public health academic and a member of the Council for the Human Future.
